WO1997016324A1

WO1997016324A1 - Drivers cab for working vehicles comprising openable front- and rear window

Info

Publication number: WO1997016324A1
Application number: PCT/DK1996/000457
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jens Jørgen FUGLSANG
Original assignee: Bosal-Sekura Industries A/S
Priority date: 1995-11-02
Filing date: 1996-11-04
Publication date: 1997-05-09
Also published as: AU7280896A

Abstract

A drivers cab for working vehicles is provided with a pane front (2, 4, 6) of which an intermediate part (2) forms a raisable window to be raised and pushed under the cab ceiling co-operating with guide rails (18, 20) in the cab side frames. Said intermediate part having a limited height, it will not during the movement, occupy much space in the cab. The intermediate part (2) consists of an unframed slightly flexible pane which provides for a good outlook and is guided and held in such manner that in its closed position it is subjected to vertical compression resulting in the pane curving outwardly contacting weather strips (42) at the sides.

Description

Drivers cab for working vehicles comprising openable front- and rear window.

The invention concerns a driver's cab, for example in contractor's machines, public utility vehicles, agricultural machines, and tractors with an opening window pane at at least one end.

By certain kinds of vehicles and machinery of the above indicated category it is desirable with an opening front and/or rear window. This may be for the sake of visibility in e.g. excavators or trench diggers or in order to be able to reach out and get something outside of the cab without leaving it. In small vehicles and machines without an aircondi-tioning unit an opening window is also desirable for reasons of personal comfort.

A front and a rear window cannot be made opening in the same way as side windows. Windows to be cranked down are out of question because of lack of space and sidewards sliding windows are not allowable as a front window since this has to have a continuous field of vision. In spite of a real need opening front and/or rear windows are not produced since no attractive solutions have been made. Most of the known solu¬ tions are based on hinging the window at the top so that it may swing out at the bottom edge. A complete opening where the window stands horizontally out from the cab is a complicated construction.

By another known type of solution there is used a window the frame of which is suspended in the same way as the type of garage overhead door to be lifted while at the same time swinging in as the frame at the top and the bottom has later¬ ally projecting guide rolls of which the lower interact with vertical guide rails at the sides, while the upper interact with horizontal guide rails extending inward under the ceil¬ ing. In an intermediate position the door will extend upwards and inwards with an angle of 45° from halfway of the height of the front opening, i.e. delimiting a rather large, upper triangularly shaped space. This is without significance in even semisized garages but in a compact cab it is difficult to keep free the necessary room for this, especially if there is be enough space for the driver during the change.

In DE 41 17 683 Al this problem has been effectively overcome by forming the front of the cab's front and ceiling part simililarly to a circular arc as well as the front window and the side pieces of its frame are curved correspondingly. Hereby it is without significance for the space in the cab in which position the window is, also during the shifting between closed and open position. On the other hand the cab is bound to have that partly cylindrical shape which from se-veral other points of view are absolutely unwanted, also be-cause it does not have a nice look or an otherwise suitable form.

By the invention it is realized that an extremely attrac¬ tive solution is achievable by a sort of a cross between the two devices described here since there is utilized a curved transition between lateral guide rail parts extending ap¬ proximately vertically and horizontally, respectively, for guiding the window pane, because the pane section in the ver¬ tical, closed position only partly fills out the height di- mension of the vertical side of the cab.

It is already known that the opening front window part does not have to extend the full height of the front side of the cab, since there may be placed fixed pane parts both up over and down under the opening part. Hereby the conditions will not correspond to the said garage door because its height now may be perceivably less than an extension from floor to ceiling. This means that the panel part in question may be swung up through guide rails which at the top form a curved transition between the vertical and the horizontal extension and that the same panel part hereby may appear with such a short dimension in the direction of the swinging up that it during both swinging up and down only will appear with a small internal need for space in the cab which is therefore fully acceptable. This is independent of whether the window appear in a framed or unframed way, but by the invention it is further realized that special advantages will be connected to the use of unframed window parts even because a better view will be achieved hereby. By the use of panes being just in some way flexible and appearing with a slightly curved basic shape it is possible according to the invention to utilize this by pushing the pane so as to squeeze its upper and lower edges together when swinging down the pane to a closed position, so that the pane naturally will be curved forward a little fur¬ ther and thereby be forced to abut against suitable sealing strips at the sides. A such desirable sealing is thereby achievable without dragging against the sealing strips and only by a final downward push to a snap catch of the upper edge area of the pane.

The unframed window may be equipped with guide fittings at the corners and these fittings may be interconnected both at the top and the bottom with a crossbar, whereby these crossbars will serve as easily accessible control levers for shifting the window.

According to the invention it has furthermore been possi¬ ble to make use of guide grooves appearing directly in the corner sections of the cab, whereby visibility is not re- stricted by added special guide rails.

An embodiment according to the invention will be explained in more detail in the following with reference to the appended drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 shows a schematic, perspective view of a driver's cab on a small excavator,

Fig. 2 shows an exploded image of a front window pane for the cab,

Fig. 3 shows a schematic illustration of the opening and the closing of the front window pane, and Fig. 4 shows a detailed side view of the front window in a closed position.

On Fig. 1 of the drawing there is shown a schematic per¬ spective view of a driver's cab for a small excavator equip¬ ped with an opening front window 2 as shown in Fig. 2. Under the opening window there is a fixed window casing part 4 and above at the transition to the roof there is also a fixed window casing part 6. The front window 2 is at the bottom and the top provided with a handle in the form of a crossbar 8,10 fastened on brackets 12,14 supporting the pane at the side edges. The brackets are here shown with screw mounting in the front pane, but they may of course also be glued to the glass. The front pane is guided on the side frames 16 of the cab in which there is formed a groove 18 at the front while there is a guide rail 20 in the roof part. The bottom edge of the pane is guided in the grooves 18 by means of slide shoes 22 connected to the brackets 12 through a connecting arm 24 which has a ledge 25. At the top the pane is guided by rol-lers 26 riding on the rail 20 in that the roller journals 28 are fixed to the handle brackets 14. It appears that the existing frame sections may be utilized in which there is a ledge 30 for windows and roof. By welding a flat bar 32 on the frame in connection with the ledge the groove 18 appears. The front window is opened by lifting up the window pane with the two handle rods 8,10 and taking it backwards up under the roof as shown on Fig. 3. The pane is taken backwards to a parking position wherein the two guide rollers 26 go down into a recess 34 in the guide rails 20. The pane may locked further with a slide 36 mounted on the brackets 14, which may be slided sidewards for engagement with a not shown knob on the side frame.

When closing the window pane 2 the slide 36 is disengaged and the guide rollers 26 are lifted up from the recesses 34 whereafter the window 2 may be slided forward and downward for closing, where the ledge 25 on the connecting arm 24 is pressed against a stopper 40 on the side frames 16 of the cab. At the front and above the guide rail 20 there is placed a retainer block 37 so that the guide roller 26 may pass under the block 37. In closing the window it is pressed forward so the guide roller 26 is squeezed in before the block 37, whereby the upper part of the pane 2 is slided forward in the window opening. In this position the window 2 is put into a tightly fixed position between the blocks 37 and the stoppers 40 as it has been indicated with stippled arrows A. By this pressure torques are created on the bracket parts 12,14, act¬ ing on the pane and causing it to curve forward into abutment against sealing strips 42 at the sides, see Fig. 4 in parti- cular. For adjusting the desired closing effect the block 37 is equipped with a longitudinally sliding fitting 38 which the guide rollers 26 engage. The stoppers 40 are also vertically adjustable for achieving the desired closing effect. By releasing the pane 2 it also goes clear of the sealing strips 42. The window pane 2 may be locked with the slide 36 in the closed position in the same way as in the parking position.

By the invention is has thus been made possible with sim¬ ple means and in a suitable and easy operable way to provide a driver's cab with an opening front and/or rear window pane which in a satisfactory way shuts tight in the window opening, and where the window may open up in full width and without disturbances in the field of vision. From Fig. 3 it is clearly seen that the window because of its relatively small height will not occupy much of the room in the interior of the cab during the shifting between open and closed position so that the change may easily be performed from a position inside the cab.

Claims

C L A I M S :

1. A driver's cab for working vehicles and of the kind having an opening window of the sash type in one end wall, i.e. the bottom edge of which may be slided upward while its top edge is slided inward under the roof of the cab, in that the window at the corners has projecting guide means (26,22) guided by respective lateral grooves, characteri zed in that the opening window constitute an inter-mediate section between fixed upper and lower window parts (4,6) , and that the lateral grooves extend from a relatively vertical course up¬ ward through a curved course to the section under the roof of the cab.

2. A cab according to claim 1, characteri zed in that the lateral grooves are integrated in the side frames of the cab.

3. A cab according to claim 1, characteri zed in that the opening window is constituted by an unframed pane to the corner areas of which the guide means are directly fast- ened.

4. A cab according to claim 3, characteri zed in that the window pane is flexible to some degree and is guided and releasably fastened in such a way that it in the closed position is forcibly fixed in the vertical direction so that it curves outwards against lateral sealing strips.

5. A cab according to claim 4, characteri zed in that the corners of the pane is connected with guide means belonging to it through bracket parts (12,14), which are in stiff surface abutment against the inner side of the pane and are mutually connected through horizontal handle rods (8,10) .

6. A cab according to claim 4, characteri zed in that the side frames have stoppers (40) for the lower guide means, and that the upper guide means (26) engage a halting stopper (38) as a snap catch.

7. A cab according to claim 5, characteri zed in that the lower guide means (22) are accommodated in a non- pivotable way in their respective lateral grooves (18) and are connected with inwardly projecting bracket arms (24) which at a distance from the pane are pivotably connected to the bracket parts (12) belonging to them on the pane.